Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1887-01-21

time to harden the honey sac is empty and
the honey is contained in the lining of the
sac and the bee has to bore through the
wall of this lining in several places before
it can get all the honey.
Bees have habits which help cross fer
tilization. They work on flowers of one
kind as long as they can before changing
to another kind. This is not to help the
plant. but because they have learned how to
stand and work better. Bees search for
honey by instinct, not by experience, since
they work as soon as they emerge from
the pupa state. They search introduced
plants rs readily as native flowers which
do not secrete honey, and often try to suck
honey ont of honey sacs that are too long
for them to reach. Bees cannot tell will
out entering flower whether other bees
have exhausted the honey, and hence the
flower is more perfectly cross ferti led
Mr.. Miller found that IN Il certain set OF
blossoms visited by a humble bee, four
tifths had been previously visited.
The great number of flowers which bees
can visit in a short time greatly increases
the chances of any given flower being
cross ferilized. In one minute Il humble
bee visited "A of the closed flowers of flax
In 10 minutes Il single flower on the sum.
init of plant of evening primrose was
visited eight times by various bees In
10 minutes every flower on Il certain flow
ering plant was visited twice. In one min
ute six flowers of a harebell were entered
by pollen collecting bee, for when col
Letting pollen they work more slowly then
when collecting honey. 1t was estimated at
one time that he flowers in "A certain flower
bed were each visited 30 times daily dur
ing he week or more that they were in
blossom. Bundle bees in collecting honey
fly at the rate of l0miles an hour.
Bees have other habits which are direct
ly opposed to cross fert ilizatiOn. In
flowers having several honey sacs, if a bee
finds the first one it searches is empty, 1t
does not wait to search the others. Bees
often, get the honey by biting holes in
the blossoms and sucking il out of the side
Whole fields of red clover have been eX-
amined in which every flower was thus
bitten. The biting is done by humble bees
and then hive bees suck through the
holes Bees are very successful IN thus
biting holes, always hitting the spot out
side just over the honey sac. In all such
cases the plant is not fertlized
The facts are that plants are very thor
oughly fertilized by insects. gentle
man marked 30 plants which were inca
pable of Standardization and carefully
pnt pollen on the stlgmas of each day af
ter day he left an equal number to the
insects. His produced Il ,237 seeds and the
bees O,SS6. difference of but one III 30
and this difference is fully made up by the
fact that he worked during II cold spell
with continued rain when the bees did
not. OF white clover, 10 heads unpro-
tected gave nearly 10 times as many seeds
rs 10 heads covered with gauZe 20 heads
covered produced only one poor seed and
20 heads open gave 2290 seeds. or red
clover. 100 heads covered gave nothing
aud 100 heads open produced 2120 seeds.
Insects will abundantly cross fertiliZe
plants growing one-third to one-half mile
apart.
In the United States hive bees never
suck red clover. In England they only
suck it through holes made by bum
BILE bees The clover cannot be fertil-
lied 10y the hive bee, it Is too small, but it
is cross-fertilized by the humble bee
Hence one gentleman has made this state.
ment The safety of England depends on
the number of cats she keeps. He proves
his proposition II us. Without the aid of
humble bees the red clover could not be
ferlillzed. Bumble bees make their nests
on the ground, where they are the prey of
mice. Cats dest Oy the mice and give the
bees chance to live. Hence he reasons,
no cats, many mice; many mice, no bum
Die bees; no bees. no clover; no clover, no
cattle; no cattle, no beef and without
beef where ould the Englishman be
RESOLUTIONS were reported 10y DR. Pond
and adopted referring with satisfaction
TO the growth of the association and. its
benefit TO all classes of beekeeperS thank
ing those who participated in the Meeting
aud the railroads, hotels and press for
tavors show also thanking Prof. Cooke
for his valuable address and secretary
Holmes Tor faithful services.
A discussion then ensued rs to the place
OF holding the next annual meeting.
The weight of opinion seemed to
be in favor of Burlington as the
most central for the members
of the association. 1t was finally decided
to authorize the officers to name the time
and place of the next meeting and the
convention adjourned